A silver halide color photographic: light-sensitive material has the characteristic that it has a high image quality and an excellent cost performance, and it is most widely used as a means for reproducing a color image. In order to further improve this characteristic of the silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, a large number of investigations for increasing image quality has been conducted. In order to increase the image quality in a color print material, there are required for image quality performance, an excellent color reproduction of the color print obtained after a development processing, a sharp image having no blur (a high sharpness), and a visually inconspicuous dye cloud fine particle constituting the dye (an excellent graininess). It is a very important performance characteristic to provide a dye image which is fast to light, heat and humidity and is not faded for a long time, In recent years, the fastness of the dye image has been strikingly improved and it has been possible to store a color print for a long time.
Meanwhile, in seeking to increase the image quality in a color photographing material, a large number of efforts have been made for improving sharpness and graininess, and a color negative film capable of providing a high sensitive and sharp negative image has come to be presented. Under such circumstances, it is anticipated that in the future improvement in the sharpness of a color paper will become more and more important from the viewpoint of the improvement in the quality of a color print finally obtained.
Meanwhile, in order to obtain an image having a high sharpness, a measure is required to be taken so that light for an exposure is not spread over a wide range on a print face to generate fading. There are known as the method for the prevention of this spreading, a method in which a water soluble dye is used in order to prevent irradiation generated on an emulsion layer provided on a reflection type support, a method in which a coloring layer (AH) is provided in order to prevent halation, and amethod in which reflection rate is raised in the vicinity of a surface on a reflection type support in order to prevent a blur in the support. Of these methods, there is described in JP-A-3-156439 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application) as the method for preventing a blur, the method in which a white pigment is incorporated into a waterproof resin layer covering a reflection type support in the proportion of 14% or more. Further, there is described in JP-A-57-64235 and JP-A-62-187846, the method in which a hydrophilic colloid layer containing a white pigment is provided between a support and a silver halide emulsion layer.
However, there have still been left in these methods in which a white pigment is used, the problem that the background is yellowed during storage over a long period of time after processing, and the problem that the discoloring or fading of a dye image is accelerated. Further, also in the methods in which there is provided a coloring layer in which a water soluble dye and colloidal silver are used, the increase in the amount thereof in order to obtain a higher sharpness causes a residual color on the background after processing and generates discoloring and fading on the background or dye image due to aging, and thus still necessitates an improvement therein.
The color image-forming method most generally used in a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material is the method in which an oxidized aromatic primary amine series color developing agent is reacted with a coupler using exposed silver halide as an oxidizing agent to form indophenol, indoaniline, indamine, azomethine, phenoxazine, phenazine, and dyes equivalent thereto. In such a system, the method in which a color image is reproduced by a subtractive color process is used and generally, the amounts of the three color dyes formed of yellow, magenta and cyan are changed to form the color image.
Of them, a pivaloyl type yellow coupler and a benzoyl type yellow coupler have most generally been used as a yellow coupler. The former has the defect that color developing performance is low while the fastness of a dye image formed is excellent, and it is so limited that it can not meet the requirements for rapid processing and low replenishing during processing, which is strongly required in recent years. Further, it has not yet reached a sufficiently satisfactory level in terms of the hue of a dye formed. Meanwhile, the latter has the serious problem that while it has a high color developing performance, it has a further worse hue of the dye formed and a very low fastness of the dye image. In the coupler for a color print, a serious consideration is placed on the hue and fastness of the dye formed, and therefore the pivaloyl type yellow coupler is generally used. However, the pivaloyl type yellow coupler also has not yet reached a sufficiently satisfactory level in terms of hue, and thus a further improvement is desired.
In order to improve the color reproduction performance of the color print, attention has been given to the pivaloylacetanilide type coupler having an alkoxy group at the 6-position of an anilide ring. While this coupler is certainly improved to some extent in terms of the color reproduction performance, a problem still remains in terms of the fastness of a dye image.
The problem common to the pivaloyl type couplers is the insufficient image fastness under the condition of a high humidity. Further, it has a problem as well in terms of a light fastness after it is left under a high humidity. As the color print is stored in an environment in which light, heat and humidity are changed, the evaluation of an actual fastness is a difficult subject and it is required to be checked under various conditions.
Further, in recent years, there are proposed for improvement in color reproduction performance and a color development performance, the acylacetoamide type yellow coupler having a 3- to 5-membered cyclic structure, described in European Patent EP 0,447,969A1, the malondianilide type yellow coupler having a cyclic structure, described in European Patent EP 0,482,552A1, and the acylacetoanilide type yellow coupler having a dioxane structure, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,599.